Not many folks read my blog post from August 1, the one where I defended the importance of fact-checkers. I was disappointed, but not surprised. After all, we're living in a time when the very concept of objective truth is under attack. When I was growing up, I learned in school that some things were factual (yes, the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776), and others were myths (no, the Founding Fathers never stated America should be a Christian nation). I learned how to use reliable sources when I did my research. I learned how to tell the difference between something that could be proved with credible evidence, and something that was just someone's opinion. And I learned to respect and rely upon people with years of expertise in their chosen field, as opposed to people who insisted they were right because... well, because they believed they were right.
How times have changed. These days, even when some things are well-documented and accurate (for example, the earth really is round-- or, if you prefer, spheroid in shape) and others are frequently refuted and demonstrably false (the earth is not flat, although this was a popular belief until as late as the 1600s), there are still many people who insist the subject should be debated. Some folks are certain we never landed on the moon. Or they are convinced that serious diseases can be cured by purchasing some product they saw in a TikTok video. For some folks, not liking a fact is grounds enough to discount it. ("My preferred candidate lost, so therefore, the election must have been rigged"-- no matter how many investigations showed the election was conducted fairly and the other candidate got more votes.) And even though many years of evidence suggest that something is absolutely true, a growing number of people are convinced they don't have to believe it if they just feel it isn't true.
Contributing to this problem is the rise of partisan media. As we become more and more polarized, we increasingly seek out sources that reinforce what we already believe. That's called confirmation bias, and I've mentioned it before. It's a big problem. In a world where the vast majority of us no longer share common sources of information, that means we no longer hear any views that challenge how we think, nor encounter other ways of looking at the issues. And whether it's science, or politics, or history, a growing number of folks just want to stay in their own bubble, never needing to confront any facts they don't like.
This makes it challenging to be an educator. When the president wants certain historical facts erased-- not because they didn't happen, but because he doesn't like the fact that they happened-- it becomes difficult to teach. Yes, slavery, and then segregation, went on in America for far too long. No, the fact that this happened was not a good thing, and forbidding teachers from discussing it (or insisting they put a positive spin on it) doesn't make it a good thing. Yes, America has lived through periods of time when racism or xenophobia or antisemitism flourished, often with encouragement from politicians and clergy. No, banning books about those periods of time doesn't mean those things didn't happen. And studying these issues doesn't mean you hate your country-- just like ignoring them doesn't make you patriotic.
I'm basically happy to be alive, and I try my best to be optimistic. But sometimes, I feel like we're living in perilous times, and I'm not sure what to do about it. It's a world where our leaders just want us to accept whatever they say, and where the truth isn't as important as vibes. It's a world where we are told that a protester who throws a sandwich at the police is a dangerous criminal, while a protester who attacked and vandalized the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 is a hero. There are federal troops on the streets of American cities, while men in masks grab up people who "look" suspicious, and we're told that this is perfectly normal. It's not the world I expected, and yet here we are. But when I try to discuss it, some folks tell me I'm just an alarmist. Or they tell me I'm too negative. Some folks insist there's no problem at all, even though to me, it certainly seems like there is. So, you tell me-- are we losing more and more of our freedoms, or is it just my imagination? After all, in a world where facts and truth are debatable, what I am seeing is probably just something else we can all debate-- until the day when debating is no longer allowed...
